On Monday (Nov. 13), Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell issued a glowing PRESS RELEASE in which he announced what he described as a project to provide high-speed internet service to more than 54,000 homes and businesses in the 24-parish PSC District 5.

Yet, only two months earlier, Campbell had appeared before the Claiborne Parish Police Jury to publicly trash a proposal by Claiborne Electric Cooperative to provide even faster and more comprehensive internet service to an estimated 65,000 homes and businesses in its five-parish service area—at a comparable customer cost.

Campbell, an Elm Grove populist Democrat who lost to John Kennedy in the 2016 U.S. Senate race, who lost to Bobby Jindal in the 2007 governor’s election and who three times ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House from Louisiana’s 4th congressional district, seems to be running for something again but there don’t seem to be any other offices for him to seek.

In September, he presented his timeline of events concerning the approval process for Claiborne’s proposed high-speed broad internet service. One cooperative member who was present for that performance described Campbell’s remarks as “hyperbole,” adding that many of Foster’s claims “were outright wrong.”

“Then when he had his say, for which he caught a lot of flak from citizens in attendance, he promptly left as (Claiborne CEO) Mark Brown was given the opportunity to present his side of the situation,” the member said, pointing out that he is neither an employee nor a board member of Claiborne Electric. He asked that his name not be used.

“There was a marked difference in the points of view with Mr. Brown’s position being a lot more straightforward and fact-based,” he said. “That Campbell made his accusations and factually incorrect statements and then left without hearing Mr. Brown’s EXPLANATION was one of the rudest displays I’ve seen in a public forum.”

In his press release, Campbell said the “Connect America” program of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) “is helping fiber, wireless and satellite internet providers meet the need for broadband service in unserved or underserved areas of North Louisiana.”

He said that FCC records indicate that 54,580 homes and businesses in his PSC district are eligible for high-speed internet service funded by Connect America.

That represents just a fraction of almost a million people—325,000 households—in the 24 parishes.

What Campbell describes as “high speed” internet is a download speed of 10 megabytes per second and an upload speed of one megabyte per second at an estimated cost of $60 per month per customer.

Claiborne’s proposal calls for the same $60 monthly rate for 50 megabytes to one gigabyte of service for 10,000 more customers in the five-parishes of Bienville, Claiborne, Lincoln, Union and Webster than for Campbell’s entire 24 parish district.

Campbell claims that if the Claiborne project fails, customers would be on the hook for the costs, ignoring the fact that the proposal calls for a construction phase-in that would allow the project to be scrapped if it did not meet projections.

“Foster Campbell ignores the fact the 69 co-ops around the country have already done projects like that proposed by Claiborne and none of those have failed,” the Homer member said. “He also ignores that about 75 other co-ops around the country are in the process of starting fiber optic systems.”

(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

Foster’s behavior is a strange reversal of traditional Democratic support for electric cooperatives begun under the administration of Franklin Roosevelt and championed by such notables as Lyndon Johnson. In fact, Foster’s rhetoric is reminiscent of Bobby Jindal’s REJECTION of that $80 million Commerce Department grant to install high-speed broadband internet for Louisiana’s rural parishes back in 2011.

In that case, Jindal was in lockstep with the AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL (ALEC) which in 2010 had staked out its opposition to federal encroachment onto the turf of private business despite the fact that private business had been painfully slow in responding to the needs of rural America dating back to the early days of electric power and telephone service.

And therefore, since AT&T was a member of ALEC and since AT&T was opposed to the grant, therefore, so was Jindal. In Jindal’s case, AT&T had also made a six-figure contribution to his wife’s charitable foundation, giving Jindal another reason to take up the ALEC banner.

AT&T, in fact, even took the City of Lafayette to court to fight the city’s efforts to construct its own fiber optic high speed broadband internet system. It was a costly fight for both sides but Lafayette eventually emerged victorious despite AT&T’s best efforts.

Foster Campbell, in his press release noted that AT&T would be responsible for $17.2 million, or 79 percent of the FCC-funded broadband expansion into PSC District 5 while CenturyLink of Monroe would have responsibility for $3.9 million (18 percent) of the cost and satellite provider ViaSat would spend $1.5 million (3 percent).

So, why is Campbell now sounding so downright Jindalesque in his opposition to Claiborne Electric?

For that answer, one would have to take the advice FBI agent Mark Felt, aka Deep Throat, gave to reporter Bob Woodward during the Washington Post’s investigation of Nixon and Watergate:

Follow the money.

CenturyLink made two $1,000 contributions to Campbell’s various state campaign fund in 2011 and 2012, according to Louisiana Ethics Commission records.

Glen F. Post, III, of Farmerville in Union Parish, is President of CenturyLink. He personally contributed $11,500 to Campbell between 2003 and 2014.

Stacy Goff is Executive Vice-President of CenturyLink. He chipped in another $500 for Campbell in 2005.

AT&T gave $10,000 to Campbell in campaign contributions between 2003 and 2010.

William G. “Bud” Courson and James W. Nickel of Baton Rouge are registered lobbyists for AT&T. Their firm, Courson Nickel, LLC of Baton Rouge, contributed $2,000 to Campbell from 2002 to 2014.

Now you see why Foster was so opposed to Claiborne’s proposal. I bet if you dug around a little more you would see where any number of lesser employees of various companies contributed to him. He hates for any one to stand up to him and yet he is the biggest crook of all. Every year each cooperative had to fill out a very detailed financial and operations report and file it with the PSC. Yet he was ” surprised” at certain financial things he found out recently about the cooperatives. Tells me he never read the reports that get sent in every year.

I worked for Claiborne Electric years ago and we used to do a program for the schools. He came to one of the programs . I was set up with the Claiborne Electric table where we had safety equipment for them to see and be explained how and why they were used. We also had fun things like the “Eye of the Storm” and a Vandegraff for them to put their hands on and it makes your hair fill with static electricity. Makes it fun for the kids. He came up to our table and asked what booth was this. He had put his hand out but when I said Claiborne Electric he withdrew his hand from shaking mine and turned his back on me. One of his minons said oh he hates cooperatives.

I will never get why the powers that be thought that Foster Campbell was the stronger Democratic candidate for the US Senate race against John Kennedy as opposed to Caroline Fayard. I think she would have done much better in the race.

Had you contacted me, I could have provided some balance to your one-sided and error-filled report November 15 concerning high-speed internet service in North Louisiana. I’ve read your material through the years and you’ve always struck me as fair-minded, so I hope you publish my response. I can document everything, so let me know if you have any questions.

I announced on November 13 a much-needed expansion of broadband service in rural North Louisiana. “Connect America,” a program of the Federal Communications Commission, is providing $22 million to three different internet providers to create 54,000 new residential and commercial locations in my 24-parish Public Service Commission district.

That includes nearly 7,500 locations in Claiborne and Union parishes, the heart of the Claiborne Electric Cooperative territory. The co-op had proposed to leverage its finances, principally its electric business, to borrow $82 million to enter the internet business. Since that plan put the co-op’s electric rates at risk, I proposed an independent feasibility test of the project, and Claiborne’s management agreed.

Then they didn’t. They withdrew their loan request and their participation in the study, and co-op management tried to pin the blame for the project’s subsequent collapse on the PSC and me.

Curiously, you seem to favor the internet project of this rural electric co-op despite the fact that it lost half a million dollars last year, and pays its nine-member board of directors more than any other co-op in Louisiana. Claiborne’s proposed service may have been faster, but it rested on shaky financial ground and risked higher electric rates for all 18,000 co-op members — whether they wanted internet service or not.

Connect America broadband is fully financed by the federal government. Claiborne Electric, with a net worth of $22 million, proposed to borrow nearly four times that much for its internet gamble. That’s hardly a “comparable customer cost,” as you put it.

As for your anonymous source claiming I rudely left a Claiborne Parish Police Jury meeting without hearing the co-op’s side, that is wrong as well. I made my presentation, took questions from the audience and left the meeting. I’ve met with numerous parish officials and on multiple occasions with the Claiborne Electric board.

Anyone with a passing knowledge of my history with broadband must have laughed at your attempt to equate me to Bobby Jindal. I have been outspoken in my criticism of Mr. Jindal for his rejection in 2011 of the $80-million federal broadband grant to Louisiana. That grant would have brought high-speed internet to one million Louisiana residents. Mr. Jindal absurdly claimed that the federal government was interfering in private business. I found evidence linking his decision to internet providers and Jindal contributors whose own grant applications were denied.

And, contrary to your statement, AT&T favored the grant project.

You referred to AT&T efforts to stop the City of Lafayette from entering the broadband business. I sided with the City in its successful campaign to overcome the objections of AT&T and Cox Communications to Lafayette municipal broadband.

Which brings me to a final point. Lafayette has succeeded with its broadband service. We will never know whether Claiborne could have done likewise because the co-op refused to submit its project to an independent review. It may be just as well, because in our dealings with Claiborne we learned that the co-op lost money last year, all the while paying its part-time directors an average of $35,000 each. That lavish treatment by a non-profit co-op has led the PSC to investigate all 10 Louisiana electric co-ops and how much they pay their directors and executives.

I’m delighted that the FCC is funding internet for unserved rural households and business owners in North Louisiana and throughout the state. That is a victory for Louisiana.

Email Subscription

Like what you read here? Send a free subscription to a friend or subscribe for yourself. Type in his/her email address in the square below and then click on “Sign me up!”

Join 3,406 other followers

Donate!

LouisianaVoice does not accept advertising because we insist on an independent voice. Likewise, we do not charge a subscription fee for our blog.
That is not to say we do not have expenses—lots of them. Moreover, we would love to add a reporter to provide even better coverage of the underbelly of Louisiana politics.
Your contribution would help us immensely in meeting our growing expenses. Simply click on the “Donate” button here and contribute whatever you feel appropriate.
Thank you.
Tom Aswell, Publisher

Got a tip?

Got a news lead for LouisianaVoice to investigate? Have a suggestion for a story? Your identity will never be revealed. Just send an email to louisianavoice@cox.net